MAGMA — Ëmëhntëhtt-Ré (review)

MAGMA — Ëmëhntëhtt-Ré album cover Album · 2009 · Jazz Related Rock Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
Miler72
Wow, it's nice to see a veteran band like Magma that can still deliver the goods and not sound like an out of touch aging band the way too many other acts are. This 2009 release is the third installment of the Kohntarkosz trilogy that started with Kohntarkosz in 1974 (naturally), continued in 2004 with K.A., and ends with this just five years later. Upon listening to this, you'll notice some familiar material, reworkings of material you've heard from Live/Hhai, Udu Wudu, and Attahk, some of it never existed in studio form (particularly the Live material). Plus there's also brand new material proving they can still do it! Here it's Christian and Stella Vander (as usual), with Bernard Paganotti's (on and off-again bassist) son and daughter Antoine and Himiko (Bernard married a Japanese so that's how his daughter ended up with a Japanese name) providing part of the choir, and some guy named Phillippe Bussonnet providing bass, who does a good job filling in Jannick Top's shoes. Upon listening to this, I really don't think it brings anything new to the table. In 2009 it's really difficult to cover new ground regardless of the type of music you play. It sounds like a Magma album, but it's very good still the same. So it still comes with my recommendation.

I also forgot that this comes with a second disc, a region free DVD on the making of this album. It's all in French, but you can also choose English subtitles if you don't know French. You see as the recording of the album is being made, and Christian Vander telling band members how he wants their part to be played. It might not be something you'd want to watch all the time, but it's nice to be able to see these guys working on an album and see how it's done.

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